Fashion Week Internationale

One of the many benefits of watching Vice's Fashion Week Internationale web series has been that our breadth of knowledge of international plastic surgery trends has widened tremendously. In Colombia, butt implants are all the rage; in Rio it's gender reassignment (which of course is more than just a trend) and for some South Koreans, it seems no facial feature is safe from surgical enhancement--the primary goal of which is a more western look.

This week, Fashion Week Internationale goes to Kingston, Jamaica to investigate the disturbing trend of illegal skin bleaching. We chatted with host Charlet Duboc over email (she's currently working on upcoming episodes in Tel Aviv and Moscow) about how the show has progressed, what other disturbing beauty trends she's encountered during her travels, and why Jamaica has been her favorite trip thus far (it totally wasn't just because of the abundance of smoke everywhere).

It's days like today, the last day of New York Fashion Week, that we're really glad things like Fashion Week Internationale, Vice's newish web series, exist, to show a different side of the fashion world.

About a month ago, we told you about Fashion Week Internationale, Vice's new web series, in which intrepid reporter/Karlie Kloss doppelganger Charlet Duboc explores all those other fashion weeks that take place around the world. The very entertaining and eye-opening Pakistan and Full-Figured fashion weeks have already aired (you can watch those here), but we are especially fascinated by this week's episode: Colombia Fashion Week. We got a sneak peek of the episode and from beginning to end, it does not disappoint. It begins with a song in which the phrase "spank her ass" is repeated over and over again (in Spanish) and hostess Charlet Duboc makes the following astute observation: “Most fashion weeks are synonymous with cocaine, but this fashion week's having an extra hard time totally trying to dispell that.”